Shop Tour 2010: Part II

Shop Tour 2010:

Part II

This is a continuation of the wood shop tour, if you haven't see it here is the link to part I. The last article left about halfway through the storage areas of the shop so this post will pick up there.

There is only one cabinet left to describe and that's the most recent addition to the shop, but still isn't entirely complete. I made this cabinet to store hand tools like screwdrivers, chisels in the main part and then smaller items in the door. The components for the cabinet door are cut and ready to be glued and screwed, the door will expose about 2½" of depth which is enough to store the smaller items.

The cabinet is made from cherry for the frame and birch plywood for the carcass and panel.The dimensions are 28" wide by 7" deep and 32" high which allows for a fair amount of storage. The pliers will likely be moved to a different cabinet and configuration at some point because this really wasn't made for them - thanks God there is always something else to build.

The areas above and below the cabinet are used for storage as well, in fact just below the cabinet is access to the closet area under the steps, this is where the air compressor is stored. Once I put the cabinet door on I will update this picture and the related description.

Wall Storage

The next thing to go through is the open storage areas, these include any shelves or cabinets without doors as well as the various pegboard walls around the shop. Consistent with the rest of this tour we'll start at the front right and move clockwise around the shop finishing up with the ceiling storage areas.

The image on the right represents the pegboard wall immediately to the right when entering the shop. The white switch in the middle of the pegboard controls a receptacle right below it. All of the pegboards in the shop need to be reorganized, I'm not a big fan of pegboard but didn't know any better when I built the shop.This is the area where I will most likely put in the swinging panels, effectively tripling the storage space you now see.

The drawer cabinets are a necessary part of any shop, my father had several in his shop and I always loved going through the drawers, that hasn't changed. The pegboard clips were purchased on eBay back in 2001, this was the best way to buy them. I ended up getting over 500 different types of pegboard clips for $25. The 500 clips were used but so what, the mix included pretty much every type of pegboard clip you can imagine and in every size!

Above the pegboard is a shelve in the shape of a polygon, this is where the oscilloscope and some other electrical devices are stored. There is a nook to the left (not in photo) where boxes of screws and nails are stored, the nook is the perfect size to accommodate about 20 boxes of unseen hardware. The far corner is another pegboard wall that like the others requires some reorganization but for now stores paint brushes, cold chisels, caulk guns and various other "stuff".

The image on the left (sorry for the pole) shows the right hand side of the shop when entering, the upper half of the entire wall is pegboard and is used to store hammers, wrenches and various other traditional hand tool. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I'm not completely happy with the organization of this wall either , I guess I just don't like pegboard. The storage extends to the back corner of the shop right near the dust collection system. Notice the DeWalt hand drill hanging from the wall, the shelf contains not just the drill but all of the bits and extensions normally used, this was a really convenient technique for storing the drill. In addition, some of the older hand tools are hanging from the wall like egg beater drills and metal files and rasps. All of my C-clamps and most of my micro clamps are stored here as well. The bench shelf is also used to store things, mostly power tools that are in a case. Under the bench I have a chop saw, a mortising machine and about a dozen different power and air tools.

Other Storage

The ceiling storage seen in the image on the left is hanging from the ceiling using threaded rods that are hanging from cross-member supports I attached to the rafters. The rods are ¾" and as you can see I use oversize washers at all the weight bearing points, these have been hanging here for about 9 years. This unit has two shelves where the bigger shelf is supported by the threaded rods but the lower shelf is attached directly via brackets I made. The upper shelf is 4' square and the lower one is a little less than 3' square. These shelves are used for storing plastic bins of electrical and plumbing components, a cross-cut sled for the table saw and a supply of various bandsaw blades.

The cross-member not only support the hanging shelves they also form a storage area below the floorboards that I've used for wood and other materials. These shelves are easy to put and take down making them ideal storage option for any space that has exposed rafters in the ceiling.

The left hand hanging shelf is similar to the one above except I didn't use brackets to create the second shelf, instead I extended the threaded rods and created two tiers. The lower shelf is obviously smaller then the upper one, no real reason for that other than it was an experiment and I wasn't sure about doing two the same size. I should mention that the back of these shelves are actually sitting on the main I-beam for the house, it is only the front that are using the threaded rods. While the threaded rods are rigid I still used c-clamps to anchor the shelves to the I-beam.

This shelf, like the other one, contains multiple plastic bins that are holding all types of small components, this is where my pegboard supplies are stored for example. The lower shelf contains finishing supplies, more threaded rods and other items used in the shop.

The shelf in the image on the right is above the table saw and stores several tools including a back up chop saw (Rigid), a circular saw (Milwaukee) and a scroll saw. There are also boxes of both materials and supplies on the shelf. I made the brackets from plywood then glued and screwed them to the wall studs.The shelves make up a contiguous run of about 10' which offers plenty of additional storage for heavier items likess the power tools.

I store any types of cables or wire from the ceiling, for the heavier material like wire I use threaded rods, but for extension cords and certain types of cable I just use a bungee cord through the middle and connect it to two eye hook screws. The image on the right shows some of the ceiling on the right side of the shop. The roller stand is something I rarely use now that I have the variable roller board hanging to the right. I made the variable roller board to be used with the router and table saw as an outfeed table, this is accomplished by using the workmate stand as the base.

The pictures in this post are pretty large so be sure to click on them for a better perspective. The next post will finish off the storage and start on the wood and tools.